Abstract : The development of mobile applications (apps) is exploding, largely due to the widespread use of mobile devices. App stores (e.g., Google Play) are the common distribution channels for apps. The excessive competition in current app markets is forcing app vendors to release high-quality apps. In fact, previous studies have repeatedly demonstrated that app users are intolerant to quality issues (e.g., crashes, unresponsive apps). Users who encounter issues frequently uninstall apps and move to alternative apps. Hence, quickly detecting and preventing issues is crucial for staying competitive in the market.
Although developers use emulators and test apps before deployment, many bugs emerge in the wild. Developing apps which run without errors along time remains a primary concern for app developers. The big challenge is that the environment is out of the app developers’ control. More specifically, the mobile ecosystem faces rapid platform evolution (OSs, APIs), high device fragmentation, and high diversity of execution contexts (networks, locations, sensors).
This thesis introduces a new generation of app stores—App Store 2.0, which exploit crowdsourced information about apps, devices and users to increase the overall quality of the delivered mobile apps. App stores already have access to these different types of crowds. We claim that app stores can exploit the wisdom of the crowd to distill actionable insights from the feedback returned by the crowds. These actionable insights assist app developers to deal with potential errors and threats that affect their apps prior to publication or even when the apps are in the hands of end-users.
We sketch a prototype of the envisioned app store for Android apps. We validate the proposed solution with real bugs and apps. Our results have proven the applicability and feasibility of our approach. These new app stores have the potential to reduce human effort and save precious time for developers, which is a decisive factor for the success of mobile apps in current app markets.